Fallout 3 [spoilers, etc]

[Lantyssa]

About the Vault 101 adult quest:

Yeah.

[squirrel]

I blew away her old man, thinking I was helping her. She didn't want to have much to do with me after that.

[Ingmar]

I think it is a nod to the ending of Fallout 1.

[Lantyssa]

I recall someone saying they messed up by not adding their offices to the game.  I just wanted y'all to know, they are there.  Exploring them now.

[Strazos]

I also had a hit squad try to gank me as I came out of a subway. We chat, and I immediately leap into VATS and lob a grenade at their feet...Bloody Mess makes this tactic even more amusing.

Anyway, I must have done this battle at least 10 times...the first few because I tried to fight "conventionally," but as time went on, I tried to do it as perfectly as I could...

Because the thing is, if I take too long with the mercs, a horde of super mutants happen upon us, and that's No Good. About 8 of them.

So now I just finish up the merc trio fast with 2 nades, and look down into a small park to see the horde of mutants loitering around with a captive. I toss in 3 nades, and that mostly takes care of them, finishing them off with a few headshots from my laser rifle.

Heh, nades in VATS is BS; you can lob grenades WAY further than VATS will let you. And they're great because you can still do good damage with a low explosives rating.

And one last bit....ya gotta love dropping a nade at someone's feet, hear them say "OH FUCK!!1!" and watch as they fly into the air, legs separate from their body.

[FatuousTwat]

I have a screenshot of a Behemoth (the locked up one in the raider main city) flying about 20 feet in the air from a VATS sniper rifle shot to the head... Wtf?

BTW, if I'm evil, can I enter that raider city without getting shot at?

[Falconeer]

Question (still feckin waiting for the box): how game-changing is to play good or evil? I mean story and event wise, would you replay it just to experience the other path, or it's not that significant after all? Would you say you miss some cool stuff (not equip) by playing just one path?

[rk47]

hmmmm not much. slave or don't slave.
kill or protect. let them die or give them water.
side quests are like that.

If you're talking main quest. I don't think there's much choice till near the end.

[schild]

As I've said before, Bethsoft isn't the best at "shades of gray."

[Sky]

So now I just finish up the merc trio fast with 2 nades, and look down into a small park to see the horde of mutants loitering around with a captive.

I stumbled across that graveyard/church, captive inside. Nobody around. "Hmm," I think. So I free the captive, quicksave. Follow her to see if she goes anywhere interesting, she just runs around the area aimlessly. Quickload, head back to the church and loot it. I heard a boom outside. Walk back to the road and hear the opening whine of a chaingun (my first encounter with one). The super mutants had left the captive to go chase a pack of dags down the road. Oh shit...hightail back to the church and hold off against almost a dozen super mutants plus the brute holding the chaingun. Then a centaur comes up from behind, followed by a pack of dags. Used up almost all my ammo, but I wanted the damned chaingun :)

Bonus blowing up some kind of tanker or something killing a couple of them hiding behind it with a nice hollywood-style explosion.

This game may be a bit light on the rpg but definitely delivers regardless.

[Lantyssa]

Yeah, use exploding cars to your advantage.  I learned that after being burned a few times by trying to use them as cover.

[kaid]

HAHA after the first fire fight I had with a super mutant I realized that cars and trucks are NOT cover to hide behind. It even talks about them in the manual as being extremly explosive and oh boy are they and the explosion is a bit radioactive as well.

[Khaldun]

It works in your favor sometimes too, though, if you're fast enough. I had a Super Mutant Master bearing down on me with a minigun as well as two brutes with nailboards. I was low on stims and pretty beat up, too much so to just slug it out with them. There was a bus in between them and me, so I ducked behind that. The Master obliged me by firing his minigun into it and it lit up. I ran straight back from it, so that they'd keep coming in a straight line at the bus to get at me. Sure enough, just as they get to the bus, BOOOOOM. Bye-bye Super Mutants.

There is just so much lovely shit like this in the game.

[CmdrSlack]

It's nifty finding emergent behavior in the NPCs. I was cutting down the Potomac, trying to find this sewer that had an alleged plethora of Mole Rats. En route, I came upon some raiders exchanging fire with super mutants across the river. The raiders finally noticed me, and I had to dispatch them. The super mutants were way too far across the river for me to do much good shooting them without wasting craploads of ammo.

So I started to walk away. And here comes a group of hunter NPCs. Combined, we took those muties down. It was pretty rad.

On the subject of random attacks by mercs or Regulators: According to the strat guide, you get jumped at random when you're either "very good" or "very evil." Apparently, being simply good, neutral or evil doesn't merit hassle from random attacks.

[Taonas]

When hacking, look for brackets like this (fdsfds) [sdfsdsdf] {sdfsdfds} Any time you see them, move your mouse over it and it'll light up like a word, click it and it'll either remove a wrong word, or give you your 4 lives back while hacking.

[Warskull]

It's nifty finding emergent behavior in the NPCs. I was cutting down the Potomac, trying to find this sewer that had an alleged plethora of Mole Rats. En route, I came upon some raiders exchanging fire with super mutants across the river. The raiders finally noticed me, and I had to dispatch them. The super mutants were way too far across the river for me to do much good shooting them without wasting craploads of ammo.

So I started to walk away. And here comes a group of hunter NPCs. Combined, we took those muties down. It was pretty rad.

On the subject of random attacks by mercs or Regulators: According to the strat guide, you get jumped at random when you're either "very good" or "very evil." Apparently, being simply good, neutral or evil doesn't merit hassle from random attacks.

Playing as good, I went genocidal on the slaver's camp, killed all the slavers, then melted their leader.  I leave his lady slaves along, I start scavenging when I hear a gun shot.  I turn around one of the lady slaves picked up his magnum and gunned down the other one.

[Ragnoros]

I would very much like to know the motivations behind that.

[Phred]

I've been playing the game for a couple of days and one thing that's annoying me a bit is that there doesn't seem to be alternatives built in for solving quests. For instance, in Germantown, the door is locked and requires 100 lockpicking. And I couldn't find a fucking key. What's up with that? Right now I'm in Vault 117? and can't get through a door because my science skill isn't 75. This is the most un-fallout thing I've noticed in the game so far, as iirc in fallout there were multiple solutions to almost every quest and you never got locked out because of a skill too low. Time to use a cheat code to set my skill to the level they want I suppose.

Other than that I'm enjoying the hell out of the game. The faces on the npc's are the best I remember from any Bethesda game and they've got the atmosphere down, imo.

[Khaldun]

The Germantown door you can get to by going through the Police HQ from the inside. So far that seems pretty consistent to me: doors you *need* to get through, if they have a high lockpicking, that's just because getting in at that point is the shortcut, and the longer version involves having to go through enemies. I dunno, though--there are some 100+ lockpicking doors that I haven't gotten into in facilities where no quest seems involved.

[rk47]

I think they can at least add on the following options:
Explosives on doors / containers (may blow up some of the stuff inside) and FULL ALERT, can't sneak for 15 seconds etc.

[MournelitheCalix]

In the initial zone, vault 101 its possible to unlock the letter that is your mother's favorite passage.   Has anyone managed to do this and if so does it have any impact on the rest of the game?

[schild]

I managed to come back and do it.

Nothing special, I think it was 300 credits and some shitty item. I remember opening it and being like /snore.

[Ingmar]

It has a schematic in it. (Rock-It Launcher)

[schild]

So, as I said, some shitty item? :P

[Rishathra]

So, as I said, some shitty item? :P

You're doing it wrong.

First, build the Rock-It Launcher, then head to the teddy bear factory and load up.  If you aren't enjoying yourself afterwards, then you sir are an enemy of fun.

Shitty as in overall effectiveness?  Well, you got me there.

[schild]

Shitty as in overall effectiveness?  Well, you got me there.

This.

[Venkman]

It's nifty finding emergent behavior in the NPCs.

Near Steward Square there's a group of Mutants against a group of Talon Mercs. So I decide to take advantage of their distraction with a missile launcher. They both unleash on me with red hot instant death So next time I wait until they're right on top of each other (the Mercs were winning) and Fat Boy them.

I like that in this game AI actually behaves differently based on race, style and current weapon loadout. Most of them are only armed with one thing but occasionally you get some dual- or tri-spec Merc or Mutant. But by the time I notice they're switching weapons for situations, I just roll out the Missile Launcher and that is that...

[rk47]

nahh, shoot their weapons off with the AK. Did it many times with or without VATS. That's why I always save my AP for those missile launcher toting mercs / raiders. That or just grenade them.

[Warskull]

Shitty as in overall effectiveness?  Well, you got me there.

This.

Every weapon other than the small guns, laser pistol, and plasma rifle exist for entertainment purposed only anyways.  Same with half the stats.

[Lantyssa]

I don't care if half the things are shitty from an effectiveness point of view.  I have fun with them.

[Big Gulp]

I don't care if half the things are shitty from an effectiveness point of view.  I have fun with them.

All I know is that I scavenge Nuka-Cola Quantum, turpentine, and Abraxo Cleaner whenever I find them (tin cans you can find anywhere).  Screw that woman who collects Nuka-Cola Quantum, I got Nuka grenades to make!

[Ironwood]

What ?  Dammit, I've been drinking that shit.

How do you people learn this crap ?

[Big Gulp]

What ?  Dammit, I've been drinking that shit.

How do you people learn this crap ?

To be honest, I can't remember what quest I got the schematics for that grenade from...  Maybe the survival guide quest?  Anyway, it's like a frag grenade x5.  Pure awesome.

[Strazos]

x5? Really?

Good thing I've been saving Quantum. I can find the turpentine and the cleaner easily enough. I really want those schematics.

[Lantyssa]

What ?  Dammit, I've been drinking that shit.

How do you people learn this crap ?

To be honest, I can't remember what quest I got the schematics for that grenade from...  Maybe the survival guide quest?  Anyway, it's like a frag grenade x5.  Pure awesome.

That's the bottlecap mine.

There are a lot of things to learn... plenty I still haven't found in fact.  Any given individual could spend months if they didn't use a spoiler site.